Lost Blue
by LoonRider
Summary: Joe Gibken turned against Zangyack. He really didn't expect what happened afterwards. Second in the Gokaiger origins series!
1. Crewmates

**Hello again! Forever and a day since I began this series, we're finally on to the second fic! This one will contain more original content, as I have quite a bit more to play with now that I have two (technically three) characters aboard the Galleon.**

Spoilers: None, unless you count the flashbacks in episodes 11 and 12. This chapter starts just after Joe is given the blue Gokaiger key and his own mobirate.

#

There was no shortage of strange people among the Zangyack soldiers; a bizarre mix was inevitable with the variety of planets their recruits came from. Still, Joe didn't think any of them quite matched up to the bewildering stranger who'd just electrocuted himself for a man he'd known for all of nine minutes. Maybe that was why Joe had agreed to follow him so quickly... or maybe Joe himself was just as strange.

He looked at the device in his hand, the one the stranger had called a mobirate. "Kinda bulky, isn't it?"

"Yeah. I didn't build 'em." The pirate chuckled, head turning towards Joe again. "I'm Marvelous, by the way... Well, I guess Captain Marvelous, now."

Joe nodded. "I know who you are. I've seen the posters... one of the Red Pirates, right?"

A dark look flicked over Marvelous' face, and he looked back at the sky. "I was. They've been destroyed... I'm the Captain for a new crew now." He glanced at Joe... no, at the blue key Joe was holding. "The Gokaigers."

The former Zangyack knew when to leave a subject alone. "Small crew so far, with just two of us... My name's Joe. Joe Gibken. I'd shake your hand, but..." He tensed his muscles, managed to lift his free arm a few inches before it gave up and flopped to the dirt again.

Marvelous laughed. "Yeah. You weren't kidding about the electricity..." He twitched and clenched his fingers, apparently testing out the effects on his muscles. "Hope this wears off soon."

"Marvelous!" Joe blinked. The surprises were just piling up today, as a robotic parrot descended and landed with a thud on Marvelous' chest. "Marvelous! Are you okay?"

The captain sighed, making a half-hearted attempt to swat her away. "I'm fine, Bird. Don't make a fuss."

"I'm not a bird!" She hopped back to avoid his minimal movement before looking at Joe. "Hi! I heard you introduce yourself. Nice to meet you, Joe! I'm Navi!"

Okay. "Nice to meet you." Robot parrot. He'd seen stranger things, he supposed. None came to mind at the moment.

"We better get moving, though." Navi took off, flying small circles around the two of them. "There're more Zangyack patrols going around in the city. They might come looking."

"That's easy for you to say." Marvelous strained to move again, sighed. "Keep an eye out, Bird. We'll see about the whole moving thing."

It took the better part of eight minutes for the two men to be able to stand, but the more they moved, the easier it got. By the time they reached the mountain pass leading to Marvelous' ship, they'd fully recovered, though Joe kept lifting a hand to his neck and pausing. He couldn't quite believe it. He was free. Sure, Zangyack members would still leap at the chance to kill him, but they couldn't track him wherever he went. He had a chance.

"Oy, you spacing out?" Marvelous' voice brought him back to the present, his hand returning to his side.

"No, just thinking." It didn't take long for him to realize why Marvelous had known he wasn't paying attention: they'd reached the ship. And he couldn't deny its magnificence. No wonder the Red Pirates had been such trouble for Zangyack. He looked at Marvelous with a smile. "Impressive."

Marvelous grinned. "It's called the Gokai Galleon. Suitable for a couple space pirates, huh?" He flipped open his mobirate and tapped in a button sequence. The steel guard doors over the ship's exits slid open, and two chains dropped from the black circle on its belly. Marvelous grabbed one, Joe took the other, Navi flying up beside them as the chains drew them into the ship.

They ended up in a large storage and engine area, but Marvelous led him up past some of the crew cabins into the main quarters. Navi immediately flew to a console next to the stairs. Marvelous eyed her. "Well, Bird? Is the auto repair done?"

"Yep! We're good to go!"

She started tapping buttons, and Joe looked at his new captain. "Marvelous, something I wanted to ask."

"Hm?"

"You said you had a dream, but you didn't tell me what it was."

Marvelous smiled. "You're asking now, after you signed up? For all you know, you could've agreed to help me blow up a planet."

Figured he'd fall in with a comedian. Joe couldn't help smiling back. "Doesn't sound like your style."

"You're right." Marvelous' face turned serious, and he moved to stand beside a small table, his hand resting on a treasure chest that sat on top. "The greatest treasure in the universe... That's my dream." He smirked, then. "We're gonna find it."

Joe's eyebrows furrowed. He'd heard stories of it. Hell, there probably wasn't anyone who'd travelled in space and hadn't at least heard it mentioned. "I thought it was a myth."

"So did I, but it's real." Marvelous opened the chest and removed something... It was a key like the one he'd given Joe, but this one was white with red accents, a red spade on the helmet. "A friend of mine told me about it. These things... the ranger keys, they're the keys to obtaining it."

Joe picked up another of the keys, this one was blue with a claw emblem on the chest. "That's all they do?"

Marvelous frowned. "Well, apparently they were used originally to transform people into these suits, that's how the one I gave you works." He turned the spade headed key around in his hand. "Haven't tried using one of these ones yet."

"They'll work!" Both men jumped as Navi dropped between them to land on the captain's chair. "Any of the keys will work in the mobirates!"

"And when were you gonna tell me that, Bird?" Marvelous looked like he might swat the robot, but he paused. "How's that work? We can't carry them all with us."

"No problem!" She batted the two keys out of their hands and back into the chest before closing it. "I can connect your suit belts to the chest so you can summon them through your buckles! It's called Key Road."

This time Marvelous did knock her on the head, though it seemed more affectionate than anything. "Y'know, you've become awful useful lately."

"I've always been useful! You'd never have gotten them all without me!" She turned away with a huff, but only for a second before she looked back at them... At Joe specifically. She was grouchy with Marvelous, the ex-Zangyack figured. "You gotta transform for me to connect you."

Joe looked down at the key and mobirate, still in his hand, and opened the latter to find a keyhole. He then shot a glance at Marvelous, who'd taken out his own. "Like this. Gokai Change!" Barely a second later, he was GokaiRed.

Joe nodded, flipping the cover off his key's base. "Gokai Change!" It was a strange sensation, the sudden power that came with transforming. He had a feeling he'd have plenty of chances to get used to it.

"Looks good on you, Joe!" Navi flew a quick circle around him before heading to the chest. "Okay, let's get you connected!" Her beak tapped against the chest's lock, creating a rainbow string that she pulled to his buckle, and it disappeared. She did the same for Marvelous. "Now try summoning those keys you had earlier!"

Marvelous paused a moment, then tapped the button on top of the buckle. The gold section spun, revealing the spade-headed key. He grabbed it and turned it around in his hand. "Spade Ace, nice." He glanced at Joe. "The one you had is called AbareBlue."

Interesting name. Joe pictured the claw emblem, focusing on blue, and tapped the button. The AbareBlue ranger key was right where it was supposed to be. He took it out and studied it. "So we can use any of them?"

"Yep! As long as you know which key you want, you can summon it!" Navi opened the chest, and they returned the Spade Ace and AbareBlue keys to their place.

Joe eyed the sheer number of keys inside the chest. Guess he was going to be spending some time learning the names and abilities of each key... He glanced down at his own suit and, after a second, decided he'd start with the blue ones.

Marvelous clapped his hands. "Well, time to get off this rock." He pulled out the GokaiRed key and looked at Joe. "Just relax and you'll return to normal. I'll be in the cockpit. The bird'll teach you how to work the scanners. Keep an eye out for Zangyack in orbit." And he was up the stairs and gone.

Joe eyed the GokaiBlue suit, shut his eyes, and exhaled. When he looked again, the suit had vanished.

"Over here!" Navi had flown back to the console, and he moved to stand behind it as the ship rumbled to life under his feet. She tapped a few buttons and brought up a full scan of the space above them on the view screen. "Scanners are working perfectly now! We took some damage a little while ago, that's why we had to land on Novissimum."

Joe leaned over the console, studying the display and the buttons to figure out their function. "Lucky for me."

Navi paused. "… Yeah. I guess it was, wasn't it?"

Near as he could interpret a robot, she seemed intrigued. "What is it?"

"Oh, nothing! Just glad we were able to help out a stranger." … Well that response made no sense. Before he could say so, though, she tapped a few more buttons. "Marvelous, we're clear to leave!" That switch was the communication to the cockpit, then.

Marvelous' voice returned from a speaker in the console. "Hey, Joe, keep an eye on things. Don't let the bird boss you around, huh?"

"I'm not a bird!"

Joe smiled. Already he felt better taking orders from Marvelous than he ever had taking orders from his Zangyack superiors. "Right."

Leaving Novissimum was… strange. Joe watched it recede on the viewscreen for several long seconds, even after he'd confirmed that no Zangyack ships had come after them. It had been his first and last assignment as a member of the elite Imperial force. Now he was leaving the doomed planet as a pirate, rather than being left as a corpse on its dirt. Definitely not how he'd expected his day to go.

"You're spacing out again." His eyes snapped to the door to the cockpit, where Marvelous stood, out of his suit now.

"I guess so." Joe moved to sit on the couch while Marvelous sat in the captain's chair. Navi glanced between the two of them before flying to land on the back of the chair. "Mind if I ask you something?"

"Depends what it is."

Joe leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and keeping his eyes on his hands. "Why did you help me? It couldn't have just been the way I fought."

Silence for only a few seconds, then Marvelous chuckled a bit. "That was part of it. I guess I was curious, too… when I heard them call you a traitor."

Joe glanced up. "What?"

Marvelous shrugged. "Going against Zangyack is a pretty gutsy decision, even more so if you do it when you're working for them. Guess I wanted to get to know who else got on their bad side." He leaned back in the chair, shifting as if seeking comfort. "So, I'm a pirate and I screw them over every chance I get. What'd you do to piss 'em off?"

It was Joe's turn to go silent, his eyes returning to his hands. He felt a bit sick, remembering the order that had finally opened his eyes to the reality of Zangyack.

"_Kill them all!" _

He shook his head before the memory went any further. "They ordered me to kill children." From the corner of his eye, he saw Marvelous' gaze focus on him. "I refused, and attacked my commander when he tried to do it instead. So he beat me, branded me a traitor, and stuck the collar on my neck." None of these were pleasant memories, but he kept the rest of the story close to him. He didn't want to talk about Cid. "I don't even know what happened to those kids." The whole city had been crawling with soldiers. He'd probably only delayed the inevitable.

"These kids…" Something in Marvelous' tone made Joe look up again. "Two girls and a boy? About this high?" He held his hand, palm-down, at what would have been their hip height.

"Yes. How did you—"

"I met them." Marvelous looked at the wall, leaning back again with his fingertips resting against each other. "Funny. When they said a soldier saved them, I just assumed it was someone from the planet."

It took a while for that to sink in. They'd survived! "So they're okay?"

"Yeah. I was there when they found their parents at the evacuation site. A lot of the Novissians survived."

Joe couldn't believe what he was hearing, but Marvelous had no reason to lie. He leaned back, practically slumped into the back of the couch. "That's great…" So it hadn't been for nothing. Someone besides him had survived the mess he'd caused.

They sat in silence for a while longer, and then Marvelous stood up abruptly, headed for the console. "Anyway, we need to find a good, populated planet without a Zangyack presence."

Joe blinked, then stood up to better see the searches flicking across the view screen. "What for?"

Marvelous eyed him with disapproval… No, he was eyeing his _uniform_. "Well, we need to get you a new wardrobe."

#

And so begins Joe's adventure as GokaiBlue! Wanted to hit a few notes here, like Key Road and Joe and Marvelous learning each other's names, and just how the hell long is it gonna take the other four Gokaigers to figure out the ranger keys anyway.

Also, special bonus game: can anyone tell me what Marvelous does, on the Galleon, this chapter that he did not do throughout Lone Red? =D R&R!


	2. New Life

**Real life keeps rearing up and kicking me in the tail. I've got fics to update, go away need for employment _ **

This chapter's planet was named by Animefreak99-06, one of two to answer the bonus question from last chapter. And I love the name so squee~

#

Joe studied himself in the single mirror in 'his' room. It was a simple set-up: bed, wardrobe, chest at the foot of the bed. And he'd had to get a layer of dust off most of it before it became useable. Clearly the Galleon was made to be crewed by more than the three pirates it had previously carried. But that was a topic he wasn't going to bring up.

The image the mirror presented him set off a much more occupying thought process anyway. Marvelous had lent him some clothes until they could find a suitable planet to pick some up from, so Joe was staring at himself in a pair of black slacks and a white long-sleeve that were close enough to his size to work, but so far from what he was used to wearing that it looked foreign to him anyway.

With a last shrug at his appearance, he headed back up to the main quarters to rejoin the other two. The second he got to the top of the stairs, Navi turned to look, and she broke into giggles. Marvelous, in turn, glanced over, but simply shrugged before returning his attention to the console and view screen. Navi quieted, abashed. "Sorry."

"It's fine." Of course Mavelous' clothes looked odd on him; the captain was both shorter and narrower than Joe, and these were hardly a style Joe would have chosen for himself. He crossed to stand on the other side of the stairs and eye the view screen. "Any luck?"

"Yeah." Marvelous brought a planet up on the screen, predominantly covered by large, red oceans. On the visible side Joe counted the edges of three continents. One in the central region, mostly dark blue, and two more, closer to each of the poles. On those, the areas furthest north and south were a frozen orange. "It's called Siragos. I've been there before, for three of the Gekiranger keys."

"And Zangyack has no interest?"

"Haven't reached this system yet. The Siragosians don't do a lot of space travel, but they're pretty accommodating." Marvelous sat in the captain's chair. "Should be there in an hour or so."

"And after we're done there?" Joe took a seat on the couch, fishing his mobirate from his pants pocket to be set next to him.

Marvelous, in turn, took something out of his coat pocket. Joe only had to glance to notice it was the other Gokaiger keys. "We've still gotta find people to use these."

"Find three more people willing to stick their necks out for treasure?" Joe leaned back, frowning at the green, yellow, and pink ranger keys as Marvelous returned them to his pocket. "That's not going to be easy. Not many people are crazy enough to risk going against Zangyack."

Marvelous shrugged. "Well, we can't be the only two idiots in the universe."

~~~

The Siragosians were more than accommodating. By Joe's standards, they were downright welcoming. When the Galleon dropped its twin anchors and the two pirates descended (Navi opting to stay behind with the ship), the most they got were curious looks and smiles from a few onlookers. He raised a brow and glanced at his captain. "You weren't kidding..."

Marvelous smiled. "What, like I'd lie? Let's go."

They'd landed in the largest city they could find on the central continent, and it was busy. In addition to the normal-looking natives, several more unique species were among the pedestrians they had to dodge. Joe wasn't surprised when the first clothing store they found had an attendant who gave them directions based on limb number and body shape. Upright biped wear was apparently floors three and four.

When they got to the third floor, a Siragosian worker was waiting for them with a bright smile on her face. "Welcome! Do you need help with anything?"

Joe glanced at Marvelous, but the captain was pointing at him while looking at the girl. "He needs clothes." … That answered that, then. Marvelous was no more familiar or comfortable with clothes shopping than Joe was.

The worker seemed happy enough to accommodate, at least. "I'm sure we can find a few things. Let's see…" She walked a slow circle around him, studying him with such intensity that he was starting to feel like a museum exhibit by the time she stopped and nodded decisively. "Right. Could you follow me please?"

Over the next ten minutes, Joe was led around the store practically by the wrist, occasionally answering questions (whether they were about sizes or just asking his opinion), and ending up with a dozen or more outfits put into a fitting room. He also learned that his helper's name was Rizli.

By the time she led him back to the fitting room, the outfit number was closer to two dozen. He had to admit she had a good eye. It would have taken him hours to do what she'd done in minutes. And now he had clothes that were the proper size and didn't instantly connect him to universe-spanning despots.

When he came out of the fitting room (with an armload of clothing that Rizli took to the front), he had Marvelous' clothes over one arm and a new pair of black pants under a shirt that faded from purple up through white. Only then did he spot Marvelous, leaning on the wall across from him. "Hey, Joe. Catch."

Joe barely got his hand up in time to avoid getting the garment in the face. It was a blue leather jacket... with, quite frankly, more zippers than he would have thought possible on any single article of clothing. "What's this?"

"Try it. You're GokaiBlue now, right?"

He shrugged into the jacket and adjusted it. It fit well, and he transferred his mobirate and ranger key to the inside pocket. He raised a brow at Marvelous. "Is this so you don't forget which key you gave me?"

Marvelous snorted. "Shut up. Come on."

Joe wasn't sure what to wonder at: why clothes cost so much, or how Marvelous thought absolutely nothing of spending that kind of money. They walked back through the city with four bags (no matter how hard Rizli had tried to pack them efficiently), and Joe realized something he hadn't said despite everything Marvelous had done. He couldn't quite bring himself to look at the man when he said it, though. "Thanks."

He caught Marvelous' grin from the corner of his eye. "Don't mention it. It's worth it just so I don't have to walk around with someone in that uniform."

It was a good point… and it made a hell of a difference. Joe wasn't used to being smiled at, being treated as just another person. His world had been suspicious glances from his peers, cowering from ordinary people, and beatings from his superiors. Here, he was just some guy who had obviously not updated his wardrobe in half a decade.

His thoughts were derailed when a sudden, extra weight attached to his right arm, almost yanking him over before he caught himself. "Wow, mister, you're so tall!"

He tracked the voice down to a Siragosian child whose hands were latched onto his wrist like claws. The young boy was grinning, and Joe didn't really know what to make of it. "Uh…"

"Hey, hey." The boy tugged on the arm, ignoring the way the shopping bag Joe carried bounced against the pirate's leg. "How'd you get so tall? I wanna be tall!"

"I didn't…" What the heck was with this kid? Joe sent a desperate look to Marvelous, but the red Gokaiger was being exactly no help, standing by and smirking at the sight.

"Ernai!" The unmistakable bark of an annoyed mother spared him from the ordeal, as a short woman barreled in and pulled the child away from Joe. "Don't bother the gentleman!" She looked at Joe and bowed. "So sorry. He wandered off while I was browsing." One hand on her son's head forced him to bow alongside her. "Apologize, Ernai!"

The boy flailed, managed to duck out from his mother's arm before sulking at Joe. "… Sorry."

Joe smiled. "It's all right." He glanced between the two before bending to set one bag on the ground so he could muss the child's hair. "I'll say this though. No matter how tall you get, your mom can still boss you around. It's her privilege."

The boy gave a dismayed cry before his mother took his hand and, with another bow, led him away. Joe picked the bag up again, watching them go. Anywhere else, a child would never have dared wander far from mother, let alone approach him.

Marvelous stepped up to his side. "What's wrong, Joe?"

"Nothing, really." He shook his head, turning and starting to walk again. "I'm just not used to it… a planet without Zangyack."

Marvelous kept pace with him, shrugging. "Yeah. Seems like there's less and less of them around. Let's get back to the Galleon."

They made it with no other delays (except Marvelous detouring them to a food stall once), and dropped the clothes off in the cabins before going to the main quarters where Navi was waiting. "We're back, Bird."

"Welcome home!" She flew over to land on Marvelous' shoulder, only for him to flick her in the beak.

"Haven't been slacking, have you? We need another fortune telling."

Joe frowned. "Fortune telling?"

"It's how we found you… sort of." Marvelous sighed, sitting down. "Bird here spits out some vague prophecy, and it points us in the right direction… eventually. She's not very reliable."

So that was what she'd meant when she mentioned strangers. At least, he assumed that was part of it. "So that's how we're going to find our next member?"

"That's the plan! Let's Treasure Navigate!" Navi spread her wings, flapped twice, and shot straight into the ceiling so hard that Joe winced. "You must be sure to steal from the right places…" She drifted back to the floor with a thunk.

The ex-Zangyack stared for a few seconds. "… How's that supposed to help?"

Marvelous made a helpless, one-handed gesture to the ceiling. "See what I mean?"

# 

Whoo, this turned into a bit of a 'get it done' chapter, but I wanted to start showing just how fish-out-of-water Joe is. Despite the prophecy, we're not on the road to Luka just yet! Joe and Marvelous have a few more things to do.

PS: No, I didn't forget about Joe's necklace. We'll get there.


End file.
